The Truth About Kian

08. Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!

:: C H A P T E R  E I G H T | NOW THE OLD KING IS DEAD! LONG LIVE THE KING! ::

November 1

My real name is Killian, but I've always been called Kian. I don't know how I ended up with a weird Disneyfied name, but apparently that's what my mom named me. My biological mom, I mean. Not Karen who feels like my real mom, but the woman that I never met.

Karen wasn't one of those parents who never told their kid that they were adopted. As soon as I was old enough to understand, she told me, but she always said that it didn't change anything. We were family. Simple as—

My phone rang. Without looking at the screen, I answered it. "No, you may not make an appointment with Reed. She is currently in stay-the-hell-away-from-me land."

"Reed?"

Oh. My breath whooshed out of me. "Jules. Hi. Umm, sorry about that."

"Who did you think was calling you?"

I blushed, awkwardly coughing into the mouthpiece. "No one important."

"I'm pretty sure Sinclair wouldn't like that. Considering that he does think he's important."

"It wasn't him," I said, glancing around the nearly empty bus. The only other passenger was a freshman scholarship student, and she was sitting near the front.

Leanora. That was her name. She was fair-skinned and delicate with big eyes and badly applied eyeliner. Although I couldn't really judge her on her makeup skills—I barely wore any—but I had a feeling that the Inheritors would use it to their advantage.

I didn't like that I saw myself in her. Not physically — she was pale and blond while I was olive-skinned with ordinary brown hair — but in the way that pulled her hair around her face and curved her spine over her book reminded me of myself. I could already see who she was destined to become: a scared and scarred teenage girl who believed that she couldn't keep herself afloat in the vast sea of the Inheritor's cruelty.

"Reed?"

"Yeah?"

"You kind of zoned out on me there."

"I was just thinking," I mumbled.

"I heard Sinclair and his merry band of Inheritors were bothering you today. Are you okay?"

I grimaced; it sounded like Liam had made us the talk of St. Benedict. It was the last thing I wanted. "I'm fine. He just wanted to talk about Kian." I didn't like lying to Jules, but it was necessary. I wasn't sure what transpired between the two of us, although I had a feeling that whatever it was wasn't encouraged between an Inheritor and a have not.

"Did you get anything?" he asked.

"Not really." There was an edge to Jules' voice that made me ask, "why?"

"Maurice called. She said that she had some stuff about Kian that you might want to know."

"I'm sorry, Jules," I said as Leanora climbed off the bus, several books tucked under one arm.

"Yeah," he said tiredly. "Me too."

***

"You don't have to come." I glanced at Jules as drove to Shenanigans, Scire's popular café. He was staring straight ahead, and his white-knuckled hands were clenched around the wheel.

"I don't want you to be alone with her," he said stubbornly.

"I don't want you in the same room as her," I shot back.